Chapter 14 - The Room Beneath the Barn
Police vehicles surrounded the Hale farm before dawn.
Daniel traveled with Ross, Clara, and Thomas. Mary and Leo were moved to a protected location. Vivian and Adrian remained in custody, though both refused further questioning.
Michael had escaped during a second power failure in the Garden.
Elena was gone when emergency lights returned.
Her bed had descended into a concealed tunnel.
The farm looked peaceful beneath the gray morning sky.
Rows of corn moved in the wind. The red barn stood behind the farmhouse. Chickens wandered beside the fence.
It was the place Clara associated with safety.
Now every familiar object seemed designed to hide something.
Thomas led police to the equipment shed.
“The original entrance was sealed beneath the concrete.”
Ross’s team used ground-penetrating radar.
They found a chamber below the barn.
Clara stood beside Daniel as workers broke through the floor.
“I played here every day,” she said.
Daniel squeezed her hand.
“You couldn’t have known.”
“Dad knew.”
Thomas overheard.
“I believed sealing it was enough.”
Clara turned on him.
“You implanted Sophie.”
Thomas’s eyes filled with tears.
“Michael brought you to the farm three weeks ago. You were unconscious. He said your remaining capsule had begun leaking.”
“So you experimented on my daughter?”
“He threatened to activate your implant unless I prepared Sophie for synchronization.”
“You could have called the police.”
“He showed me a live signal from inside your neck.”
“You chose for us.”
“I was afraid.”
Clara’s voice broke.
“You were always afraid. Then you called the fear love.”
Thomas looked as though she had struck him.
Daniel did not defend him.
A staircase was uncovered.
The group descended beneath the barn.
At the bottom was a corridor painted with faded flowers.
Clara stopped.
“The garden room.”
Child-sized handprints covered the walls.
Some were labeled with numbers.
Seven.
Eleven.
Twelve had been added recently.
Daniel touched the handprint marked Eleven.
It matched the size of a young child.
A memory flashed.
He was running through this corridor.
A little girl held his hand.
Clara.
They were children together.
He saw Thomas opening a service door. Richard shouting. Alarms. Smoke.
Then the memory vanished.
“You remember something,” Clara said.
“We knew each other.”
“When?”
“Before the fire.”
A voice came from the end of the corridor.
“You promised you would come back for me.”
Clara froze.
The voice belonged to a child.
They entered a circular room.
Sophie sat in the center beside Dr. Ortiz.
The doctor’s hands were bound, but Sophie appeared unharmed.
Michael stood behind them.
Elena sat in a wheelchair connected to a portable control unit.
No army waited for them.
No secret guards.
Only two damaged people and a child they believed could complete their unfinished history.
Daniel raised his hands.
“Let them go.”
Elena looked at him.
“Subject Eleven returns.”
“My name is Daniel.”
“That name belonged to a dead boy.”
“It belongs to me now.”
Sophie stood.
“Dad.”
Michael pressed the gun toward Dr. Ortiz.
“Sit down, Sophie.”
She ignored him.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Come to me.”
Elena activated the control unit.
A tone filled the room.
Daniel’s scar burned.
He fell to one knee.
Clara screamed and reached for him.
Another tone sounded.
Clara collapsed beside him.
Sophie covered her ears.
“Stop!”
Elena’s voice was gentle.
“You can stop it.”
“How?”
“Complete the family selection.”
“I already chose.”
“The Garden accepted your emotional answer. I require a biological one.”
Sophie cried.
“I don’t understand.”
“You must decide which bloodline controls the archive.”
Daniel fought through the pain.
“Sophie, do not choose anyone.”
Michael struck him across the face.
Clara lunged at Michael, but the tone intensified and she fell again.
Dr. Ortiz twisted against her restraints.
“The remaining capsules are inactive. She cannot complete your process.”
Elena smiled.
“She doesn’t need the capsules anymore.”
Sophie’s nose began bleeding.
The walls illuminated.
The painted handprints glowed one after another.
Elena continued.
“The system is already inside her nervous system.”
Daniel forced himself upright.
“You said she owns everything.”
“She does.”
“Then she can destroy it.”
Elena’s smile disappeared.
Daniel looked at Sophie.
“You heard what the Garden asked you before.”
Sophie nodded.
“Now ask it something.”
“What?”
“Ask who gave it permission.”
The room trembled.
Lights flickered.
Sophie closed her eyes.
“Garden,” she said, “who said you could hurt us?”
A voice responded from the walls.
AUTHORIZATION SOURCE REQUIRED.
Elena touched the controls.
Nothing happened.
Sophie opened her eyes.
“Who gave permission?”
AUTHORIZATION RECORDS INCOMPLETE.
“Then stop.”
PRIMARY DIRECTIVE CONFLICT.
“Stop hurting everyone.”
Michael raised the gun toward Sophie.
Daniel moved.
The shot fired.
Clara screamed.
Michael fell backward.
Dr. Ortiz had kicked his knee at the moment he pulled the trigger.
The bullet struck Elena’s control unit.
Sparks exploded.
The tones stopped.
Ross’s officers entered through the corridor.
Michael reached for the gun.
Thomas threw himself between Michael and Sophie.
A second shot sounded.
Thomas collapsed.
Mary’s husband, Clara’s father, the man who had lied for decades and still run toward danger when his granddaughter needed him, fell across the painted floor.
Clara crawled to him.
“Dad.”
Blood spread beneath his shirt.
Thomas looked at Sophie.
“I’m sorry.”
Dr. Ortiz reached him and applied pressure.
Police restrained Michael.
Elena’s wheelchair rolled backward toward a hidden exit.
Daniel grabbed it.
“You’re not leaving.”
Elena looked up at him.
“You still believe I am the enemy.”
“You used children.”
“To stop Vivian.”
“You became worse than her.”
“No.”
Elena’s eyes shifted toward the damaged control unit.
“I was preparing them for what Richard released before the fire.”
The walls began opening.
Behind them were shelves filled with glass containers.
Inside each container rested a metallic capsule.
Thousands of them.
Elena whispered, “Orison was never the only Garden.”
A world map appeared.
May you like
This time, the lights did not number in hundreds.
They numbered in millions.
